Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1890. OUR DRINK BILL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2326, 11 January 1890, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1890. OUR DRINK BILL.

While there is no doubt that the colony would be benefited by a still further and material reduction in the consumption of intoxicating liquor, it is yet a pleasing fact that in this particular > the statistics of New Zealand compare very favorably indeed with those ot' other colonies and countries. This is dua to three causes, of which the earnest labors of temperance reformers is certainly one, though perhaps the general spread of education, and the nature of the climate, may be even more effectual. It would be impossible to arrive at an exact estimate of the potency of each of these several factors in the case, nor is it necessary to attempt to do so, the fact itself being sufficiently satisfactory. Nor is it merely to be noted that relatively to other countries New Zealand is wonderfully sober and temperate, but figures show that she is steadily improving her own record. Taking the whole population, Europeans and Maoris, into account we find that since 1882 the consumption per head of alcoholic drinks has steadily fallen year by year. Of beer in 1882 the consump tion per head was 9*684 gallons, of spirits I*o6l gallons, and of wine 0-323 gallons, while in 1888 the figures stood, beer 6*670 gallons, spirits 0767 gallons, wine 0*156 gallon, in other words the consumption during a period of seveu years ending Slst.December, 1888, fell in tha case of beer by one-third, in that of spirits by more than one-fourth, and in that of wine by nearly one-half. As compared with the consumption in other colonies and countries, save two, the figures for New Zealand are wonderfully low. The exceptions are Canada ana Hweden. Canada's consumption is the lowest in the world, the total figures per head for all kinds of alcoholic liquors (beer, spirits and wiaes) being only 3 65 gallons per head; white Switzerland is a good second, her figures being 3*99 gallons. Next after these New Zealand is the most temperate country in the world. The people of the United Kingdom drink the largest quantity of beer per head by a long way of any population in the world, the figures being 28*74 gallons, Germany coming next with 19 '38gallons, Holland next with 19 05 gallons, New South Wales following with 1670 gallons, and Victoria with 16 41 gallons, while the figures for New Zealand are 7*13 gallons. As a consumer of wine France, as might be expected, I heads the list with 16 52 gallons per bead, Austria-Hungary following «*ith4B4 gallons, the figures for Victoria being 101 gallon, New South Wales 0*74, Queensland 069 gallon, New Zealand (excluding Maoris) o*l7 gallon. It will, doubtless, surprise many of oar readers to learn that per head of population Queensland, with the singla exception of Holland, is the largest consumer of spirits in the world. The figures for Holland are 2 08 gallons, | for Queensland 185 gallons, Victoria 1-12 gallons,for the United Kingdom 0-591 gallon, and for New Zealand o'B2 galJnn -Takinaf__all nlocoop -ot—<*lcoL»uHi; drinks together, the figures are as follows :•—United^ingdom, 29 76 gallons, Holland, 22*02 ; France, 21-90 ; Germany, 2165 ; New South Wales, 18*83; Victoria, 1854 ; United States, 1245 ; Austria-Hungary, 12 30 ; Queensland, 12 09 ; Switzerland, 11.30 ; Tasmania. 10!93 ; New Zealand, 812 5 Sweden, 3-99 ; Canada, 3 65. These figures are very conclusive proof of the general sobriety of the population of this colony, atid the steady annual decrease in |he rate of consumption shows that the native born New Zealander is not addicted to the abase of intoxicants nor even, it may be said, to their use to any great extent, and the natural result of this state ot things is ehown by the statistics of imprisonment for drunkenness which show that although 40 per cent of the population of the colony over 15 years of age are New Zealand borp, only a little over 5 per cent of the convictions for drunkenness, in 1888, were those of prisoners of New Zealand birth. These are facts of a highly-encouraging nature, and which will be very pleasing I not only to teetotallers bat to all wellwishers of the colony.